It’s #blackout on Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and any other social networking platform worth a damn (I notice no one is using the Google+ logo in the promos up to this point, or WordPress, for that matter). Here’s a couple of things about #blackout. First, it’s about African American/Canadians showing their love of themselves by posting selfies on the above said platforms. It’s a celebration not only of self, but of community.
Let’s face it, there’s been a ton of shitty things that have happened to black people in the last couple of years (decades and centuries really, but let’s focus on the breakneck speed of social networking). There’s a reason why you see pictures of people wearing hoodies (bunny hugs) or carrying Skittles and bottles of Ice Tea. There’s a reason why the St. Louis Rams players walked onto the field with their hands up. There’s a reason why there’s a hashtag called #blacklivesmatter. #Blackout, and subsiquently Black History Month (why is it the shortest month of the year again) have and probably will receive a lot of shitty comments from shitty white people. These are the same folks who just can’t shut up about black people wanting something that’s about them. They’d rather have a homogenized, mayonnaise type history lesson where America (and Canada) didn’t do anything fucking wrong. Here’s the thing though, if we do learn that we did something wrong, then we can recognize it and say “let’s try not to do that again”.
Bottom line, during #blackout, try not to be a fucking douche about it and just let African Americans/Canadians do their thing and celebrate not only themselves but an entire community. You know, kind of like what white German American/Canadians do during Oktoberfest or Scottish American/Canadians do during Robbie Burns Day (on a related note, I am both German and Scottish in ancestry and participate in neither of those things).
Something I’d really like to point out that’s a major positive is how quickly the promos for #blackout popped up. It may have to do with the fact I follow a lot of black people, and have a lot of black followers, but wow did my Tumblr dashboard ever light up with all of the promos for today. It shows that the power of word of mouth is amazing.
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